Comparing Hospital Health Care

"Hospital Compare has quality measures on how often hospitals provide some of the recommended care to get the best results for most patients. You will see some of the recommended care that an adult should get if being treated for a heart attack, heart failure, or pneumonia.

"This information helps you, your health care provider, family, and friends compare the quality of care provided in the acute-care hospitals (general hospitals) and critical access hospitals (small, remote hospitals) that agree to submit data on the quality of certain services they provide for certain conditions. This quality information not only helps you make good decisions about your health care, but also encourages hospitals to improve the quality of health care they provide.

"Quality information is not available on this website for children's, psychiatric, rehabilitation or long-term care hospitals because they generally do not treat adult patients for heart attack, heart failure, or pneumonia."